Wines of the Week – A Pair of Very Different Sparkling Wines

I do like fizz and it doesn’t always have to be Champagne for me. It can come from anywhere at all as long as it’s good.

I couldn’t decide which wine to choose, so I have 2 Wines of the Week for you this time. What unites them, and pleases me, is that although these wines are both very good, neither are made using the Traditional Method. The Traditional method is method by which Champagne, and many other sparkling wines like Cava and Crémant, are made fizzy. It requires a second fermentation in the bottle that traps the CO2 from that fermentation in the wine. The wine is then aged on the yeast sediment, lees, to develop the classic toasty, brioche and biscuit characters that often define Champagne. We call this ageing “yeast autolysis”. Some people maintain that you need this process in order to produce a decent sparkling wine. These two wines show that is not the case at all and that we should be more open minded.

 

Kym Milne MW – photo courtesy of the winery.

2017 Bird in Hand Sparkling Pinot Noir
Adelaide Hills
Bird In Hand Winery
South Australia

My first fizz is made by the wonderful Bird in Hand winery in South Australia’s Adelaide Hills region. I have liked their wines for a long time so am delighted to single out this beauty. The area is covered in nineteenth century gold mines and Bird in Hand was the name of one of them. Nowadays it is a 100 hectare estate renowned for making elegant and refined wines in this cool and beautiful area of South Australia. The chief winemaker is the great Kym Milne MW who has certainly not lost his touch since I first encountered him when he was Villa Maria‘s head winemaker in the 1980s.

Map of South Eastern Australia, the Adelaide Hills are just south of Barossa and east of Adelaide – click for a larger view – non watermarked PDF versions are available by agreement.

The Pinot grapes are picked at night to keep them cool and then fermented at low temperatures in stainless steel to keep it fresh and lively. To add complexity there was short period of lees ageing for some 4-6 weeks. Then the second fermentation, to make it fizzy, took place in a pressurised tank called an autoclave.It is bottled immediately and so does not develop yeasty, biscuity flavours, so remains fresh and fruity.

Whatever mood you are in I defy you not to be cheered by this wine. The colour is gorgeous with a wild strawberry and wild salmon hue.

The nose is lifted and vibrant with ripe strawberry, raspberry, apple, orange and grapefruit, while the palate is nicely textured with the ripe Australian fruit giving more weight than we might normally expect. The mouse is soft and almost creamy, while the acidity is refreshing and the fruitiness makes the wine seem perhaps just a tiny bit not so dry.

All in all it is utterly delicious, beautifully fruity, juicy and refreshing.

I really enjoyed this and it is a perfect all round crowd pleaser for Christmas – 90/100 points

Available in the UK at around £15.00 per bottle from Frontier Fine Wines, Tanners, Amazon, Drink Finder, Waitrose, Waitrose Cellar. Grab it from Waitrose and Waitrose Cellar before 12/12/18 and it is only £10 a bottle!

More information is available from Bird in Hand’s UK distributor, Seckford Agencies.

My second sparkling wine is rather different and comes from the heart of Prosecco country in northern Italy.

The Villa Sandi, from which the company takes its name, is a Palladian mansion dating from 1622.

2016 Villa Sandi Ribolla Gialla Brut
Vino Spumante di Qualità
Villa Sandi
Veneto, Italy

Ribolla Gialla is a grape most commonly found in Italy’s Friuli-Venezia Giulia and neighbouring Slovenia. This example however comes from the Veneto and is made by Villa Sandi, the famous Prosecco producer in Crocetta del Montello near Asolo in the province of Treviso. Surprisingly for such a big name, Villa Sandi is a family run company and I think that shows in the passion they have for what they do together with the care they take in their vineyards and their commitment to looking after the environment.

Villa Sandi are based near Asolo in Treviso, the heartland of Prosecco production.

This is another glorious and very pleasurable sparkling wine that shows that you do not need the Traditional method to achieve complexity. Usually the Charmat / Tank method, or Martinotti method in Italy, is used to make bright, fruity wines, like most Prosecco. Some people however age the wine on the lees in the tank before bottling and this is called the Charmat Lungo or long Charmat. This wine spends 12 months on the lees in the tank / autoclave.

The character of the grape with its savoury qualities really showed on the nose, as did the lees ageing with a nutty, honeyed, cooked apple quality. The palate was brisk and pure with the rich acidity of preserved lemons together with some coconut and wholemeal bread. There is a touch of spice and lovely vibrant apples and green plum fruit. It feels light and fresh but savoury and intriguing.

I loved this and found that it goes with everything and nothing very well, even spicy food and unusually for this part of the world it is a dry sparkling wine – 90/100 points

Available in the UK at around £17.00 per bottle from DolceVita Wines and can be imported from Italy, until Brexit ruins it, via Ur Italian Wines. More information is available from Villa Sandi’s UK distributor, North South Wines.

So you see it is always good to keep an open mind about these things and to taste wines without preconceptions, otherwise you might miss out on a great deal of pleasure.

Wine of the Week – a beautiful summer white wine

At this time of year I love to drink delicious white wines, perhaps with some fish or chicken or even on their own. I recently presented a very well received tasting of Australian wines that I thought were suitable for summer and although they are all really good, one in particular stood out.

Lodge Hill Vineyard complete with Kangaroo.

It was a white wine made from a very unusual grape variety. Indeed it is the only example of that grape in Australia and together with the wonderful Rieslings (also click here) and the delicious Hancock & Hancock Fiano – that I wrote about recently – is clear proof that Australia is really good at bright, fresh white wines.

The wine in question is made from the wonderful Assyrtiko grape. This is the main grape variety used in Santorini where it is responsible for producing some of the very finest dry white wines – and great dessert wines too – of the entire Mediterranean. At their best these wines are bright, mineral and refreshing and there is nothing better with a bit of fish or some calamares. If you like crisp, dry, taut white wines, along the lines of Sancerre or Chablis, then you would certainly like a dry white Santorini.

Sue and Peter Barry in the Lodge Hill Vineyard August 2012.

Peter Barry certainly does. He is the third generation winemaker at his family’s Jim Barry winery in South Australia’s Clare Valley. In 2006 he and his wife Sue were on holiday on Santorini and they were astonished by the quality of the local wines. Their bracing acidity reminded them of the Rieslings that they made back home, but they had something extra too. That something extra was probably minerality, which is what the combination of the Assytiko grape and the volcanic soils delivers.

Lodge Hill Vineyard.

Peter had got the bug and returned to the island in 2008 in order to collect some cuttings of Assyrtiko from the always excellent Ktima Aryros, Argyros Estate. After a period of quarantine the vines were eventually planted at their beautiful Lodge Hill Vineyard. Peter was convinced that although the soils were very different, the other conditions would really suit Assyrtiko.

There has only been one vintage released to date, the 2016, and I would say that it bears him out. I loved it, as did the other tasters. In fact I loved it so much it is my Wine of the Week.

Map of South Eastern Australia – click for a larger view – non watermarked PDF versions are available by agreement.

Lodge Hill Vineyard from the air.

2016 Jim Barry Assyrtiko
Jim Barry Wines
Clare valley
South Australia

There is nothing fancy about the winemaking here, just perfectly ripe grapes cold fermented at low temperatures in order to retain all the freshness and delicate flavours of the grape.

The nose is lovely, floral, citric and lifted with some richer notes of apricot and pear and even a hint of sage. The palate is gorgeous, bright, fresh, pure and pristine with a lovely little touch of silky succulence balancing the high acidity. There are lime, orange, pear, apricot and nectarine flavours together with a little chalky minerality. It balances purity and freshness with fruit and texture beautifully. It’s quite a beguiling wine, but in the end delivers a wonderfully vibrant wine with crisp acidity, pure minerality and delicious fruit. It is a tad richer and softer than a Santorini, but that just adds to the sensation of trying something totally new. This is a fine white wine – 93/100 points.

This is a perfect wine to serve with some clams in white wine and garlic, seared scallops, grilled prawns, moreton bay bugs, some sea bass, sea bream, swordfish or tuna, or try it with spaghetti all vongole. 

By the way, they only made around 3,000 bottles, so grab it while you can!

Available in the UK for around £20 per bottle from:
Corking Wines, Noel Young Wines, The Solent Cellar, D Vine Cellars, Eagle’s Wines, Vagabond and House of Townend.

Wine of the Week – Fiano Spreads its Wings

Hancock & Hancock Home Vineyard – photo courtesy of the winery.

I like Fiano. It is a fabulous white grape from Campania in southern Italy. Campania is a great region, centred on Naples it produces some of Italy’s most exciting wines, using a palate of high quality indigenous grapes including Fiano. The best examples are widely considered to be those from vineyards on the volcanic slopes around the town of Avellino. Fiano di Avellino is a DOCg and is a prestigious, fine and mineral dry white, while other examples from Campania, grown on non-volcanic soils, tend to be softer and easier to drink.

Fiano is an ancient variety that is believed to have been used to make the famous Apianum wine in Roman times. Back then the grape was known as Vitis Apiana beacuse it apparently attracted bees (apis). Of all Campania’s whites I find the best Fiano to be the most refined and most balanced in terms of fruit and acidity.

Fiano is also found in other parts of Campania, including the Sorrento peninsula, and Puglia – the heel of Italy. I was vaguely aware that a few people grew the grape else where. Jenny Dobson makes one at Bush Hawk Vineyards in New Zealand’s Hawkes Bay, but it seems that Australia has really taken this, slightly exotic grape to its heart and around 70 producers have now started making examples of Fiano – which is hardly surprising as Italian food and Mediterranean style is big down under, so Fiano would be a perfect accompaniment.

Well, recently I tasted – actually retasted – one that excited me so much that I have made it my Wine of the Week.

Chris Hancock.

Map of South Eastern Australia, McLaren Vale is to the south of Adelaide – click for a larger view – non watermarked PDF versions are available by agreement.

2016 Hancock & Hancock Home Vineyard Fiano
Hancock & Hancock
McLaren Vale
South Australia

For the second week running I am telling you bout an Australian take on a Mediterranean classic. It is a bit more widely made than last week’s Montepulciano, but it is still pretty rare. Which is a pity, because it seems to suit the climate superbly, as well as the cuisine.

Many times while in Australia last year I enjoyed some simply cooked prawns, Moreton Bay Bugs or clams with garlic and oil and lemon together with a glass of white wine made from a suitably Mediterranean grape variety – my favourite place for such delights was Claypots Evening Star in South Melbourne Market and my favourite grape was Fiano, although there was one Assyrtiko as well, more of which another day.

Chris and his brother John Hancock have owned their Home Vineyard in McLaren Vale for over 10 years now. They farm some 80 year old Grenache and Shiraz, together with Cabernet and Touriga, as well as having a 2 hectare plot of Fiano that was head grafted, in situ, onto Chardonnay in 2012. Chris Hancock, who is an honourary Master of Wine, worked with Robert Oatley for many years and Chris is still involved with the Robert Oatley company which distributes his Hancock & Hancock wines.

A part of this was fermented in neutral, old, oak barrels to give roundness and volume rather than flavour, but most was fermented in stainless steel at low temperatures.

To look at the wine has a crystalline purity about it, then on the nose it has nectarine and white peach together with some lemon zest, dry honey and herbs. On the palate there slots of fruit giving a juiciness which is then balanced by freshness and a little taut minerality in the background. The texture is succulent, ever so slightly creamy even which together with the lemon, stone fruit and touch of herbs makes it delicious and very drinkable.

It is light and crisp enough to be refreshing, yet juicy enough and succulent enough to feel interesting and more complex. In a kind of way it shows the ripeness of the place it is from and some the beguiling minerality of the grape, which gives it an inbuilt tension. Lovely with fish,chicken, Mediterranean food, or just to drink on its own – 91/100 points.

Available in the UK for around £14 per bottle from:
The Oxford Wine Company, Farnham Wine Cellar, Flagship Wines, The Wine Reserve, Drinkfinder, Amazon.co.uk, Eynsham Cellars, Luvians Bottleshop, Ann et Vin, Warren Wines & Amp Fine Wines.

Wine of the Week – A Bit of Australian Hedonism

South Australia vineyards.

Australia is a great and exciting wine producing country and I discovered lots of amazing things on my tour there last year. One of the refreshing things going on down under is groups of independent, young, fearless winemakers making boutique wines in rented winery space in unlikely corners of Australia’s vineyards. In many ways they resemble the bands of hip craft brewers that seem to roam east London, New Zealand and the US.

These are often made in unusual styles and from grape varieties not normally associated with Australian wine. I tasted a good few of that sort of thing, for instance there is quite a fashion nowadays for Spanish and Italian grape varieties from Australia. I have tried some excellent Tempranillo and Garnacha from the Barossa Valley, Fiano from the McLaren Vale, Vermentino from all sorts of places and most recently a delicious Montepulciano from Riverland in South Australia.

In fact it was so delicious that I made it my Wine of the Week.

Map of South Eastern Australia, this wine comes from eastern Riverland, near the state border – click for a larger view – non watermarked PDF versions are available by agreement.

2016 The Bullet Dodger Montepulciano
Delinquente Wine Company
Riverland
South Australia

Not a grape you often see in Australia, but the the guys at Delinquente – pronounced ‘dellin-qwentay’, it’s Italian for delinquent – seem to like being different. The driving force is the wonderfully named Con-Greg Grigoriou. They use Italian grapes and one of their team, Jason Ankles, draws their striking, if somewhat disturbing labels.

Riverland is not a glamorous wine region. It is one of the big irrigated regions of Australia that traditionally produces work horse wines rather than the boutique wines, Berri Estates, Banrock Station and Angove’s are all nearby. However, Con-Greg loves the place. He grew up here by the Murray River and is utterly convinced that it can makes wines as good as anywhere else in the country – on this showing I would have to agree.

Con-Greg Grigoriou amongst his Riverland vines.

Montepulciano is widely grown in Italy, in fact it can be used in over 40 different DOCs or DOCgs. The most famous wine it makes though is Montepulciano d’Abruzzo on the Adriatic coast of Italy. These are usually attractively fruity, inexpensive, easy drinking wines with soft tannins, but there are more ambitious versions produced as well as some impressive Montepulciano and Sangiovese blends from the Conero DOCg in the Marche region near Ancona.

The fruit is all from a single vineyard, owned by Bassham Wines in Barmera. It was originally planted with Chardonnay, but was top grafted- i.e. in situ – in 2009 with more adventurous grape varieties and it is farmed organically. It is fermented in stainless steel and sees no wood at all. The aim appears to be to capture the pure, vivid, ripe fruit and he succeeds in that. The palate is succulent, juicy, creamy and generous like a smoothie of rich plum, black cherry and blackberry together with a little spice. The tannins are very soft, so the wine has no astringency and I defy anyone not to enjoy it. This is utterly delicious and comforting in a richly hedonistic way – 92/100 points.

Available in the UK from £14 per bottle from: The Good Wine Shop, Forest Wines, Kwoff, Unwined in Tooting. More Information is available from Indigo Wines, the UK distributor.

I’m not very good at drinking red wine without food, but this could do the trick. It would also be perfect with a barbecue, or almost any meaty or rich food actually, but I enjoyed my bottle with a curry, it was a great match.

Normally with my Wine of the Week, I talk about a specific wine, but use it to inform my readers about that region and style, so that they can try other wines from that place or grape regardless of whether they can find the specific wine. With this it is bit more tricky and I suppose the real message here is to drink widely and to experiment.

Wine of the Week – a classy dry Riesling

Clare Valley vineyards in South Australia.

As anyone who reads these pages knows that I love Riesling. At its best Riesling produces some of the most delicious, light, beguiling, delicious and versatile white wines available.

I love all sorts of styles of Riesling from the light off-dry Mosel style to bone dry and mineral versions from many parts of Germany as well as Alsace and Austria. Australia too has a reputation for producing good Rieslings and I have enjoyed many different examples over the years – try this if you get a chance, and this as well.

However, I recently tried one that was absolutely superb and it is such great value too that I made it my Wine of the Week.

Map of South Eastern Australia, Clare Valley is north of Adelaide in South Australia – click for a larger view – non watermarked PDF versions are available by agreement.

2016 Blind Spot Riesling
Clare Valley
South Australia

The Clare Valley is an old wine region, having been settled in the 1830s, you can tell because nearby Adelaide is named after the wife of King William IV – he ruled 1830-1837. Like many of the places called a valley in Australia, it isn’t really a valley so much as a series of gullies and gentle hills. During the growing season the days are warm, but there are cooling breezes and the nighttime temperature is cool. This helps keep the wines fresh and lively and that is why the two speciality grapes of the region – although many others thrive here too – are Merlot and Riesling, both grape varieties that don’t like too much heat.

The Blind Spot range is a sort of upmarket own label range made for the Wine Society by Mac Forbes who is one of the most exciting young winemakers in Australia today, the whole range is worth a look if you want to broaden your horizons.

This is everything that I want a Riesling to be. It is is bone dry, tangy, mineral, taut and refreshing. It has a pristine, pure quality to it and the palate is drenched with exotic lime, crisp and deliciously drinkable. It is light bodied, but full of flavour, so more akin to the finer and more ethereal Australian Rieslings like Hensche’s stunning Julius Riesling. It has high acid as you would expect, but the ripe lime balances it beautifully.

I loved this wine. It is very good quality and it so much better than the price tag would make you believe – 91/100 points.

Available in the UK from the Wine Society for £8.95 a bottle.

Enjoy this as an aperitif, it really makes you hungry, or with any light, delicate dishes, soft cheese, seafood, spaghetti alle vongole, Thai, Malaysian and Keralan cuisine, anything you dip in sweet chilli sauce, or just as a drink on its own. It will certainly be my house wine for the spring and summer.

Wine of the Week 74 – a rich and warming winter red at a bargain price

If the weather is getting you down and you have started eating rich stews, pies and casseroles to warm you up. Then you are in for a treat as I tried a wine the other day that is perfect with any of those. It will certainly bring a smile to your face, but will not break the bank, so I decided to make it my Wine of the Week.

It comes from a place, in South Australia, called the Limestone Coast. I have known of the region for a long time as it includes the famous Coonawarra sub-region as well as Pathaway. Coonawarra has long been famous for producing world class Cabernet Sauvignon and Padthaway for excellent Chardonnay, although in truth each grape can grow in both and achieve good results. Until recently though, I was not too familiar with the other sub-regions such as Robe, Mount Benson or the eccentrically named Wrattonbully.

Map of South Eastern Australia, the Limestone Coast and Padthaway are right on the border with Victoria – click for a larger view – non watermarked PDF versions are available by agreement.

All of these places seem to make terrific wines and it seems a shame that so few of us have heard of them. Luckily help is at hand with Aldi stocking a terrific pair of great value wines from the Limestone Coast – a Chardonnay and a Cabernet Sauvignon.

2014 Aldi The Exquisite Collection Cabernet Sauvignon
Limestone Coast
South Australia

Made by Taylors Wines (Wakefield in the UK to avoid confusion with the Port house) from 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from Padthaway. The wine is cold fermented in stainless steel to preserve the freshness of the fruit and then has 9 months in French oak. 25% is aged in stainless steel to preserve that bright, ripe fruit.

Deep, opaque black cherry colour. The aromas power out of the glass in that classic South Australian “lifted” way with a little leafy minty and a rich cassis coulis note. The oak gives a lovely dash of espresso, smoky, cedar cigar-box and a touch of spice.
The palate is rich, mouth coating and ripe with bold, sweet ripe black fruit and very smooth, supple tannins that make it slip down very easily. While this is not a great, it is delicious and it is certainly a good, enjoyable, very drinkable and extremely well made Cabernet – 86/100 points.

 Available in the UK at £6.99 per bottle from Aldi.

If you like New World Cabernet with its bold fruit and intensity, then this could be an excellent everyday wine for you. Try it with roast lamb, sausages, casseroles and pot roasts.

If you are popping down to Aldi, do remember to try their Exquisite Collection Clare Valley South Australian Riesling too – it is quite super, read about it here.

Australian Luxury

Like lots of us in wine I have tried a great many Australian wines in my time.  Many of the wines that excited me in my youth came from down under, but I have rather foolishly ignored what Australia can offer for far too long. However, a few experiences recently have made me realise that I should rekindle that dormant passion and renew acquaintance with some of the amazing wines that Australia makes.

Some recent Australian highlights have been a range of wines from Grant Burge – whose sensational Barossa Valley wines should be more widely celebrated – and unearthing a bottle of 1992 Lindemans Limestone Ridge Coonawarra Shiraz-Cabernet. This had been sleeping in my wine rack and had developed more complexity than I would ever have imagined. Interstingly the current vintage, 2008, has 14.5% alcohol – whereas my 1992 came in at just 12.5%.

So this new found desire to study Australia more together with my ongoing mission to discover great wines that do not require a mortgage for me to buy them, took me to this years Wolf Blass Luxury Release tasting.